Nadira Naipaul stood by her controversial interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela published in a London newspaper this week, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

"The conversation took place as I reported, and I accurately rendered the statements Winnie Mandela made," Naipaul said according to the AP.

Earlier in the day, Madikizela-Mandela denied having given Naipaul an interview.

The UK-based London Evening Standard, in which the piece was published, expressed puzzlement at the denial.

AP quoted the newspaper as saying the conversation with Madikizela-Mandela was conducted with Nadira Naipaul, wife of Nobel literature laureate V.S. Naipaul.

"Nadira Naipaul is a distinguished journalist who visited Winnie Mandela at home and spoke to her at length about her experiences," the newspaper said in a statement Friday.

"Nadira and her husband, the writer Sir V.S. Naipaul, are photographed with Winnie Mandela and this picture was printed with the article. We cannot understand Winnie Mandela's denial of an event and conversation which clearly took place."

Madikizela-Mandela described the interview as a fabrication.

"I did not give Ms Naipaul an interview. It is therefore not necessary for me to respond in any detail to the contents of a fabricated interview," she said in a statement in Johannesburg.

"I will in the coming days deal with what I see as an inexplicable attempt to undermine the unity of my family, the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the high regard with which the name Mandela is held here and across the globe."

In the interview, which raised eyebrows in South Africa, Madikizela-Mandela is quoted as saying Mandela had become a "corporate foundation" who was "wheeled out to collect the money".

According to Naipaul, Madikizela-Mandela also called Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a "cretin".

Naipaul claimed Madikizela-Mandela told her "this name Mandela is an albatross around the necks of my family" and that she could not forgive her former husband for accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with apartheid's last president FW de Klerk.